Getting Started On Social Media: Nine Tips

I spend a lot of time of time on the road speaking to Vistage groups, doing keynotes, providing workshops, and sitting on panels. The topic? Social media for executives. The one thing all of my audiences have in common is they all are business leaders and they don’t understand how to translate social media to their companies.

I’m here to tell you social media is not for the younger generation. It’s a shift in how all of us are communicating and it’s a shift in how we get our information. Gone are the days of companies shouting their messages to us over and over again, hoping to build brand awareness by the mass. Now we decide what information we want to get and how we want to receive it. If we have information overload, we control what we read and pay attention to every day.

Through speaking, writing, and coaching, I’m helping business leaders understand the return-on-investment of social media and why the shift in communication is pertinent to the growth of their companies.

Following are nine topics to get you started on a social media program.

Scott- you are SO RIGHT! Lots of business leaders think it's just a fad..."but Facebook isn't going to be around forever." They're having a hard time realizing the TOOLS are the fad, but not the shift in how we're communicating.

Ruth - GREAT thought on adding a dictionary of jargon! LOVE that idea! Totally doing it next week. :)

Hint: it's all about business, which you mention often in these posts. Think about the business strategies, goals, objectives and tactics, then use these steps to work on a SM program that addresses these goals and will help make the overall business strategy a success.

What a great tool to educate people on how to to get started with social media.

When talking to people about social media, I come in contact with two types of people:

1 - Those that know it's important but don't know where to start2 - Those that think everyone is "tweeting" about going to the bathroom

I would consider adding the following: (unless I missed this elsewhere)Having a section or topic about social media "slang" that would explain RT, #, @, DM and even the difference between group and fan pages.

Have a timeline. I use timelines to layout themes or topics for certain weeks or months as well as re-occuring messages I post.

[…] Gini Dietrich – Chicago-based PR guru Gini Dietrich is a top Vistage speaker and forecaster of trends. Gini authors Spin Sucks and particularly love The lifecycle of successful businesses and Getting started on social media. […]